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design education politics

Nicola Bould

Nicola Bould describes both design and sustainability as verbs – as processes. Design, she says is about finding creative ways to solve complex problems. Thinking bigger and wider she says is key to work at the start of the pipe – thinking in strategically and in systems – not to try to retrofit sustainability onto products at the end of the pipe. Sustainability must move beyond “can’ts” and scaring people, to looking for positives – doing the things we love in different ways. Key to this is building, and rebuilding our communities.

Nicola has just finished her PhD, and has just taken a new job as an Issues Assistant working for the Greens, based in Auckland.

Shane’s number of the week: 1.8. 1.8 billion pounds is the estimated cost to the UK of replicating the ecosystem service provided by bees (Friends of the Earth campaign).

Sam’s joined-up-thinking: Sam is off to CHI again this year where he hopes to focus on people working in areas beyond single resource consumption. He is involved in running a workshop that explores the seeming mismatch of using technology to promote more simple ways of living.

Trainspotting: Someone’s notes during during Shane’s number of the week may not have been comprehensive. They might have just said 1.8 billion. No matter, I’ll just look it up:

1.8 billion people are between the age of 10 and 24 (PSI.org)
1.8 billion people live on less than $1 a day, 70 percent of them are women (TIAW)
1.8 billion people are in informal work, and 700 million of those are in extreme poverty (formal work is 1.2 billion, OECD stats).
1.8 billion people still drinking unsafe water, UNICEF and WHO
1.8 billion young people will not reach their economic potential due to poor education, infrastructure and jobs (UN Population Fund UNFPA).
1.8 billion muslims in the world.
1.8 billion international tourists expected in 2030 (up from 1B in 2012, UNWTO)
1.8 billion US dollars worth of good shoplifted in a month in US (liveleak.com)
1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 released in Amazonian drought in 2009-10 (ERL via treehugger)
1.8 billion speakers of English (about 380 million native, wikipedia – good luck finding a valid source).
1.8 billion NOK (300M US$) being spent per year by Norway to find sustainable ways of powering the developing world

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